GoGreen gets to North America

DHL’s GoGreen climate change program has reached North America’s shores, but not the U.S. A year after the GoGreen launch in Europe the German package express delivery and logistics has made it available in Canada.

DHL Express Canada’s GoGreen service is described by the company as a “carbon-neutral” shipping option that “enables Canadian businesses of all sizes to ship their goods internationally without leaving an environmental footprint.”

DHL adds that the value-added service that makes use of carbon offsets and low emission transporation technologies provides companies with a seamless, eco-friendly friendly shipping option; it’s available from anywhere in Canada to more than 220 countries around the world.

GoGreen was launched in 2008 in Europe. In 2008 DHL says the service offset 16,200 tons of CO2, the equivalent of planting 90,000 trees.

Getting to a GoGreen carbon-neutral shipment is handled by DHL’s Carbon Management team, which measures and calculates the carbon emissions of each shipment to the nearest gram, based on fuel usage, energy consumption and shipment data from country of origin to destination. The client company then offsets these emissions by reinvesting in certified carbon management programs such as reforestation and alternative energy projects. These carbon-offset credits are issued directly to the companies using GoGreen via a carbon-offset certificate. The carbon offset and credit process is monitored and verified by Société Général de Surveillance SA (SGS), an independent certification organization.

The carbon management process is regularly monitored and verified by SGS, in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in accordance with ISO 14064 for environmental management.

Mathieu Floreani, President, DHL Express Canada, says the GoGreen service is “unique and appealing” to Canadian businesses because of the “ability and simplicity it provides local companies to manage, monitor and offset their carbon footprint, all in a seamless automated process.”

Carbon offset certificates are one aspect of DHL’s climate-change program.

The main goal for a company that operates hundreds of aircraft, more than 120,000 vehicles, and operating facilities in nearly every major city in the world is to reduce the CO2 emissions generated for every letter and parcel it sends, every ton of cargo transported and every square foot of warehouse space used.

It’s a massive mission. The company’s goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2020, compared to a 2007 baseline.

“We have already entered into discussions with our subcontractors on ways to measure and reduce their footprint, and have taken our first steps toward achieving our 2012 milestone of a 10 percent CO2 efficiency improvement in our own operations,” the company says.

The company is also moving to low and no-emission equipment – both new and retrofitted – on its aircraft and vehicles.

For example, installing winglets on its aircraft wings is resulting in a huge reduction in fuel consumption

On a Leipzig to New York return flight, a Boeing 767 will use about 1,057 gallons less fuel than the same aircraft without winglets, Bishop notes. Those kind of fuel savings add up fast. Over the course of the year, DHL estimates it will save more than 264,172 gallons of fuel per aircraft.

Is GoGreen destined for the U.S.? That might not be so easy because DHL’s battle to penetrate theturf dominated by UPS and FedEx has been costly and not all that successful to date.

GoGreen, like going green, is a much more complicated undertaking here.

One Response

Good and informative post. One needs to differentiate DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding in the mix as these two companies are simply owned by Deutsche Post, and they operate completely separately. Since the DHL Global company uses all the carriers available, I would think it impossible for them to measure their own carbon footprint.